1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an artificial nail that can be attached to normal nail plates or, by snapping out a portion in the rear section thereof, attached more efficiently and effectively to problem nail plates.
2. Description of Related Art
Artificial nails have been known for a long time. They are used both for cosmetic and prothetic purposes. It is also known that different people have different types of nails. While conventional artificial nail tips may fit well on normal nails, it has been found that they do not fit as well on irregular or problem nails. Problem nails include, but are not limited to, bitten nails, flat nails, claw nails, nails having deep grooves and high ridges, olive pit nails or ski nails as shown respectively in FIGS. 4A-4F. Adhesives do not adequately anchor artificial nail tips to problem nail plates due to air pockets that form between the nail tip and the problem nail plate. Even if properly anchored, it frequently occurs that infection sets in where air pockets are formed. Occasionally a manicurist may cut a portion of a nail tip out in order to contour it to a problem nail tip. However, cutting a nail is a difficult procedure and frequently results in ruined nail tips or improver fitting tips.
The concept of providing perforations in the base of a nail tip for the purpose of snapping out an appropriately sized section does not appear to be described or suggested as such in the art. Nevertheless, holes are occasionally found in the rear section of a nail tip for other purposes. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,941,535 and 4,554,935 which describe artificial nail tips having apertures therein for the purpose of permitting excess quantities of adhesive materials to pass through those apertures and to spread to the top side of the artificial nail.
The concept of providing perforations in a fingernail wrapper, typically a flexible sheet of paper, is discussed in another context in U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,084. Perforations are occasionally employed for other cosmetic articles such as eye liner guides as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,251. Also, printed indicia having the appearance but not structure or form of perforations are occasionally found on nail polishing masks as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,239,040.
Other patents of possible interest and relevance to the present invention include the following: 2,764,166; 2,864,384; 3,478,756; 3,982,551; 4,211,246 and 4,346,720.
Insofar as understood none of the prior art teaches or suggests an artificial nail tip having snap-off perforations so that the nail tip has the option of being used in one of two modes.